How Apple is Counting on Microsoft to sell Leopard

October 10, 2007
By

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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But if you don’t fancy giving any more of your cash to Apple in order to upgrade the OS, there is an alternative. Rather than go for a boot manager, the sophisticated choice is to choose virtualization instead. Instead of paying $120, or whatever Apple will charge for Leopard, give Parallels $50 for a copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac.

This allows you to run Windows on the Mac without any rebooting or messing about with boot managers. Also, you’re not restricted to Microsoft and the Windows OS, because on Parallels you can also run Linux distros. If you’re a Mac user and you’ve not taken Parallels for a spin, you really should because it really is a fantastic piece of kit. One of my favorite Parallels features is Coherence mode, which allows you to run Windows apps right there on the Mac desktop. You can also copy and paste and drag and drop between Windows and Mac applications, a real bonus for people who are really planning to leverage Windows applications on their Mac. While Boot Camp gives you a way to run Windows on a Mac, Parallels allows you to get real work done.

If you’re currently making use of Boot Camp, here’s what I suggest you do. Download Parallels and take it for a spin. My guess is that you’ll never look back. That way, if you decide to upgrade to Leopard you’ll do so based upon the merits of the OS and not because you want to continue making use of a free Boot manager.